Massive rehabilitation of East Africa’s railway network is expected to enhance connectivity and bring down the cost of transportation, but it will cost its five economies dearly as they seek to improve their dilapidated infrastructure.

Hosea Nyangweso, an engineer with the East African Community, told AFKInsider that upgrading the whole railway network in East Africa to standard gauge would cost $29 billion.

Rehabilitating the existing narrow-gauge network alone is expected to cost $4 billion.
The existing railway network in East Africa is about 4,000 kilometers long. Gauge enhancement to standard-gauge railway will make the line wider and increase pounding to 160 pounds, allowing for heavier axle loading.

Upgrades of the railway are being done jointly by all the five member states of the East African Community — Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.

“The railway has to be a seamless system across borders,” Nyangweso said. “Kenya and Uganda have decided on a standard gauge railway, which will run concurrently with the existing narrow-gauge railway. That means Rwanda and Burundi will have to build a standard gauge rail line.”

Tanzania prefers to rehabilitate its existing network rather than upgrading to a standard gauge network as Kenya is doing.

Kenya has already acquired funding from the Chinese government to construct its share of the standard-gauge network. Critics say government officials massively inflated the anticipated cost (an estimated $15.3 billion), and say it is far more expensive than putting up the standard gauge railway.

Nduva Muli, secretary in Kenya’s Ministry of Transport and Communications, said the correct cost for construction of the railway is $3.8 billion — reasonable by international standards. “I suspect that the figure of Ksh1.3 trillion that is being mentioned was for the whole project from Mombasa to Kigali,” Muli said.

In addition, the government of Kenya has imposed a 1.5-percent railway development levy on all imports.

The Director of Infrastructure at the EAC, Philip Wambugu, said that a framework for private-sector participation in infrastructure development is in the offing, and that an East African Development Fund Draft Bill is being developed.

Challenges facing the upgrades include the fact that this is a new technology, and some skills required for its smooth operation are lacking. Frequent power interruptions experienced in East Africa could also disrupt the control system and affect train operations.

Infrastructure interventions have seen a phased implementation, Wambugu said, adding that this depends on demand. Apart from railways, some of the other major projects in the pipeline include Tanga port in Tanzania and Lamu port in Kenya. Bagamoyo port in Tanzania could become the biggest port in East Africa. Inland container depots are planned for Bukasa, Kigoma and other towns. Inland waterways are also planned for construction.

Speculators who rush to buy land in targeted areas present a problem, Wambugu said. This is partly why planned investments are still unavailable on developed roads such as the Nairobi-Arusha road. “The government must set aside land in prime locations for industrial development before infrastructure improvements are done so as to beat speculators,” Wambugu said.

Planned rail projects amount to 10,000 kilometers of railway. Building a kilometer of road costs $1 million; a railway costs $2 million-to-2.5 million for the same distance. The main financiers are the African Development Bank, World Bank, and through bilateral arrangements with Japan, China, India, the European Union and U.S. A total of $10 billion will be used on construction of 5,000 kilometers of new railway lines.

While constructing railway lines is not cheap, Wambugu said that for bulk transport, railway has many advantages in addition to being the cheapest mode. One train engine can haul the load capacity of 50-to-100 trucks. Door-to-door delivery will be left to trucks.

Upgrading the railway network in the region will enhance connectivity and bring down the cost of surface transport.

The railway systems will be interconnected through the Voi-Arusha, Tanga-Arusha, Kampala-Kigali and Isaka-Kigali-Bujumbura lines.

Rehabilitation of the existing railway line will involve removing sharp curves, strengthening bridges and aligning the railway. Pounding will be increased from 80 pounds to at least 120 pounds. This will allow heavier axle loading.